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George Schneider was the father of the wife of Bernard Henry Feldhaus, Jr., Mary Ann Schneider. He was naturalized
on October 1, 1860 in Springfield, Ohio, between Dayton and Columbus. At that time he had been in the U.S. for eight
years, having arrived in the U.S. at the age of 21 years in 1852. In fact, there is a record of a Ger. Schneider, age
21, arriving at Castle Garden, NY from Germany on May 19, 1852 aboard the ship Preside Smidt. That would make his year
of birth 1831 and his age in this picture about 78.
George Schneider was working in the fields on his farm in Deerfield, about ten miles west of Lawenceburg, on April 24, 1903
when he saw an angle carrying something up to heaven and singing. He went to his daughter's house in Lawrenceburg and
told her he had to go to Nashville to see about his wife who was ill in the hospital there.
While on his way to the depot, he was stopped by the priest who had just received a call from his son John, who was working
as an orderly in the hospital, saying his wife had died. Mr. Schneider gave a santuary light and the statues of the
kneeling angels that sit on both sides in the front of the Sacred Heart Church in Lawrenceburg in memory of his wife.
John Schneider was the son of George Schneider and the younger brother of Mary Ann Schneider Feldhaus. He was working
at St. Thomas hospital as an orderly in April of 1903 when his Mother died in the hospital. He married Mary B. Andre
on October 13, 1903. When I was a child they lived at about 895 North Military Avenue, Lawrenceburg, TN. Their
house was two story brick. Behind the house was a large barn and several acres of land.
Around 1940, as a three
year old, I can remember riding with Uncle John Schneider in his one horse buggy delivering milk around the area. I
also remember visiting Aunt Mary Schneider with my parents an her serving home-made grape wine in very small glasses with
stems. Sometimes I even was allowed to drink the wine. I would go with Aunt Mary to the barn to run ears of corn
through the hand cranked sheller before we fed the chickens.
Uncle John passed away sometime in the early 1940s and
Aunt Mary sold the place and moved to an apartment in a house at about 575 North Military Avenue. She lived there until she
died suddenly one morning late in the 1940s, the best I can remember.
Aunt Mary had included me in her will to receive
some First National Bank stock she owned. However, before she died, she removed me from the will and gave the stock
to my younger brother Steve. She had the job of watching me while I was playing and thought I was too rowdy to deserve
the stock. I was always jumping off the porch and pretending to be hurt. She didn't appreciate my humor.
Steve said there was a bit of a scandal over the stock. He only got one share. Mother always told him
that there had been a will leaving him all the stock, but that it had disappeared after her death. If that is the case,
he doesn't know how he wound up with one share. As an aside, he purchased more shares over the years with portions of
my newspaper earnings, and then when he needed to sell it to help finance college, Dad bought it from him. Dad finally
sold it when the bank merged with another bank.
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